1990 – 1999

In the ’90s, TransAlta was instituting measures to demonstrate the company’s sustainable business practices. We also made our first large investment in the wind power business.

Meanwhile, we also worked with government to define the open, competitive and deregulated electricity market that would come about in the new millennium.

Through the ’90s, we learned a great deal about competing internationally and in newly deregulated markets by operating hydro-electric facilities in Argentina as well as power plants in Australia and New Zealand.

We were also the first Alberta utility to introduce an incentive program for energy efficiency. At the time, industrial motors used up to 80 per cent of the power consumed by business. Rebates of $400 were offered when more efficient electric motors were installed.

In 1996, TransAlta won one of the first environmental awards issued by the Climate Change Voluntary Challenge Program. And in 1998, we published our first sustainability report. Ever since, we’ve maintained a tradition of sustainable development along with an open and honest reporting of our efforts.

In 1999, we successfully bid on our first U.S. asset, a coal-fired plant in Centralia, Washington, which we then transformed into one of the cleanest coal-fired generation facilities in North America.

Our Centralia plant is one of the largest suppliers of base load power in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.